A Quiz on This and That

Answer: Lager

Lagers, including pilsners and bocks (the German dark beer), are bottom-fermented, generally using a cold-fermentation process.

The various ales are warm fermented beers using a top-fermenting yeast, and this includes stout, porter, barley wine (which is actually a beer) and a few other styles. These beers generally have wide variations in style, are usually fruitier and sweeter than lagers.

Answer: World maps

All three of these men drew detailed maps with the best information they had at the time. Fra Mauro drew his famous map (c. 1450) based on information provided by Arab and Mediterranean sailors, and relied heavily on Marco Polo's writings for the Asian part of his chart.

In 1524 Giovanni da Verrazano was sent as a French emissary to the New World, and charted part of the east coast of North America. His brother Gerolomo drew a map showing Pamlico Sound as the "Western Sea" which would lead to Cathay. This mythical sea was called the "Sea of Verrazano", and it was a further fifty years before it was debunked.

In 1569 the Flemish cartographer, Gerardus Mercator, revolutionised navigation by developing the cylindrical map projection, which represented lines of constant course called "rhumb lines". Although this led to map distortions near to the Poles, charts for the major sailing routes became much more accurate - in fact, the Mercator projection has been used into the 21st Century.

Answer: 'White Noise' by Don Delillo

In 'White Noise' Jack Gladney, the narrator and main protagonist, is a professor at a Liberal Arts college who has created a department in Hitler Studies, believing it will give him a point of difference, being a generally shunned subject. On discovering that the college will soon host an international conference on the topic, Jack frantically tries to learn German, to avoid being exposed as a charlatan. Over the year covered in the book, Jack ingests a toxic chemical, and becomes obsessed with the prospect of death.

His youngest son's brush with death (he rides his tricycle across a busy major road) snaps him out of this, and helps him to recover a sense of perspective.

Answer: Heinrich Harrer

Heinrich Harrer was an Austrian mountaineer who conquered the North Face of the Eiger in 1938, and was on a Himalayan climbing expedition when World War II broke out. Imprisoned by the British, he made several attempts at escape, finally succeeding in 1944, and in company with Peter Aufschnaiter, in arriving in Lhasa, Tibet in January 1946 (after the war's end).

Harrer found work in Lhasa translating foreign news and became a tutor to the young Dalai Lama. On his return to Austria, Harrer wrote several books on his adventures and the times and places he experienced. He died in Austria in 2006.

Answer: De Havilland Comet

The de Havilland DH106 Comet prototype was first flown in 1949, and began flying commercial routes in 1952. It was considered a commercial success as it was able to dramatically shorten flight times on long haul flights (London to Tokyo flights were scheduled at 36 hours, compared with over 86 hours with a piston-engined airliner).

Within a year there were a couple of take-off accidents, necessitating a change in the wing profile. Several more crashes occurred, and a subsequent enquiry discovered several factors, but metal fatigue, then a little-understood phenomenon was found to have been the main contributor to structural failure. Stress points formed at the corners of the square windows necessitated changing to the modern circular porthole shape. Further redesign resulted in the reliable Comet 4, but by then the airlines had largely abandoned de Havilland in favour of the new American jetliners, which had the benefit of the Comet's hard-won lessons.

Answer: Toothache

Apparently it was a well-known fact in parts of medieval Germany that kissing a donkey could cure toothache. This would have been worth trying, given the crude and horrendously painful extraction methods used at the time.

Donkey milk was used by the Ancient Greeks as a mouthwash to make teeth and gums strong and healthy. Pliny recommended hanging a necklace of foal's teeth around a child's neck to ease the pain of cutting teeth.

Answer: Because it has a high glucose level

There is absolutely nothing wrong with candied honey. Many commercial honeys are treated to prevent honey crystallizing, and glycerin is often used to achieve this.

Honey contains two sugars, fructose and glucose, making up 70-80%, with less than 20% water. Fructose is more soluble in water and remains liquid, but if the glucose level is high it can exceed the amount that water can hold. Once it becomes over-saturated, crystallisation (candying) can follow.

If this has happened to your honey, and you prefer it runny, don't throw it out. It can be restored to its runny consistency by gently warming it in either hot water or a low oven (never a microwave or you will lose its valuable antibacterial properties). Candied honey stays on the bread better, and actually is easier to use in a lot of recipes calling for honey.

Answer: Grinling Gibbons

Grinling Gibbons' talent was 'discovered' by the diarist John Evelyn, who saw him sculpting in wood and introduced him to Christopher Wren. He was commissioned to work on St Paul's Cathedral, and later was employed by Charles II, then later, King William.

Although he was also a skilled sculptor of stone, he excelled in carvings of limewood, and his lifelike clusters of fruits and flowers adorn the walls of Petworth House and Kensington Palace, plus many other churches and stately homes.

Answer: Cut the component pieces on the true bias

The 'true bias' is exactly 45 degrees to the straight grain of the fabric. It often results in significant waste, but if you compare a couturier's dress with drapes or gored skirt to a cheaply made item, you will immediately notice the difference in the way it flows and falls.

A correctly cut drape, where there is a loose swathe of fabric, will have a flowing curve, while one cut off the true bias will tend to fall with kinks and angles. (Handy hint: If you can't use your offcuts for pattern pieces, turn them into bias binding - always useful for craft or dressmaking projects).

Answer: The Four Gospels

The Book of Kells dates to about 800CE, and contains prefatory notes, all of the Gospels attributed to Matthew, Mark and Luke, and the first part of the Gospel according to John. It is believed that the last part of John disappeared after the book was stolen some time in the 11th century.
It also contains some Eusebian Canon tables, and some incomplete lists of Hebrew names.

The book is considered one of the finest examples of a collection of ancient illuminated manuscripts, with no gold leaf decoration, still surviving into the 21st century.